Macer Hall

Political Editor of the Daily Express

Margaret Thatcher is back in fashion

SUDDENLY the Tory Thatcherites are out and proud. For more than two decades the Conservative Party displayed an uncomfortable ambivalence about the legacy of controversial former prime minister Margaret Thatcher.

Successive leaders trod a delicate path trying to balance their personal reverence for the Iron Lady with a public desire to show that the Tories had moved on from a bitterly divided era in British politics. David Cameron went further with his drive to "detoxify" the Tory brand with a more inclusive and cuddly approach.

The experience of coalition compromise added to the success of Chancellor George Osborne's austerity cuts to the public sector in spurring enterprise and economic growth has changed all that. Now Maggie's ideas are back in fashion in Tory ranks and the party is itching to wield the metaphorical handbag again in the fight for freedom and national renewal.

Next week both Mr Osborne and Education Secretary Michael Gove will deliver highly personal reflections about Mrs Thatcher's influence on their own political values and her relevance for the country today.

And the new generation of Tory rising stars is making no secret of its adoration for the party's most successful peacetime leader.

In one of his first acts after joining the Cabinet, new Culture Secretary Sajid Javid ordered civil servants to hang a portrait of the former Prime Minister on the wall of his Whitehall office. Education minister Elizabeth Truss, tipped for promotion to the Cabinet in the next reshuffle, has described Mrs Thatcher as her "icon".

While the former prime minister's funeral last year was an opportunity to reassess the past, today's Thatcherite revival is all about making policy for the future.

Last week Tory backbencher Dominic Raab published a "Meritocrat's Manifesto" for the Social Market Foundation think tank fizzing with ideas about encouraging home ownership and the entrepreneurial spirit.

A similar approach is understood to be seeping into work on the party's general election manifesto. Currently being drafted by Boris Johnson's MP brother Jo, the document is expected to be the most unashamedly Thatcherite since the lady's last triumph at the polls in 1987.

New restrictions to tackle trade union militancy, measures to widen home ownership and selfemployment, promotion of selfreliance by curbing welfare dependency and a tougher approach to Brussels and Strasbourg are among flagship policies under discussion.

The boldness is a sign of Tory confidence that, in spite of the impact of the banking collapse and financial squeeze, the electorate has shifted to the Right rather than the Left. Voters are seeing that trimming the state has led to a surge in private-sector employment Tory MPs believe. They hope the electorate will opt for more of the same at the next election.

So far Mr Miliband's muddled "one nation" sloganeering is failing to win the crucial support needed to put him into Downing Street

Labour disputes that analysis and insists voters have grown more wary of free-market solutions, continue to want bankers punished for the financial crisis and remain angry that economic recovery has not yet brought a widespread rise in living standards.

The question to be resolved in May 2015 is which approach can charm the so-called "blue collar" vote.

After years of competing for the support of a relatively small group of middle-class swing voters, both Labour and the Tories have suddenly woken up to the urgent need to win the votes of the so-called "left behind" working class.

A report from the Left-of-centre Fabian Society think tank this week warned that Ed Miliband is not winning enough support in Labour's traditional territory to have any hope of becoming prime minister. Outspoken Labour backbencher John Mann decried the dominance of a "metropolitan elite" in the party oblivious to the concerns about the impact of mass immigration in the party's heartlands outside of London.

So far Mr Miliband's muddled "one nation" sloganeering is failing to win the crucial support needed to put him into Downing Street. The Tories may be taking a risk by going back to the future with a return to Thatcherism.

Their calculation is that in the battle for the crucial blue-collar vote, a little clear blue thinking and some conviction politics will prove decisive.

New restrictions to tackle trade union militancy, measures to widen home ownership and selfemployment, promotion of selfreliance by curbing welfare dependency and a tougher approach to Brussels and Strasbourg are among flagship policies under discussion.

The boldness is a sign of Tory confidence that, in spite of the impact of the banking collapse and financial squeeze, the electorate has shifted to the Right rather than the Left. Voters are seeing that trimming the state has led to a surge in private-sector employment Tory MPs believe. They hope the electorate will opt for more of the same at the next election.

Labour disputes that analysis and insists voters have grown more wary of free-market solutions, continue to want bankers punished for the financial crisis and remain angry that economic recovery has not yet brought a widespread rise in living standards.

The question to be resolved in May 2015 is which approach can charm the so-called "blue collar" vote.

After years of competing for the support of a relatively small group of middle-class swing voters, both Labour and the Tories have suddenly woken up to the urgent need to win the votes of the so-called "left behind" working class.

A report from the Left-of-centre Fabian Society think tank this week warned that Ed Miliband is not winning enough support in Labour's traditional territory to have any hope of becoming prime minister. Outspoken Labour backbencher John Mann decried the dominance of a "metropolitan elite" in the party oblivious to the concerns about the impact of mass immigration in the party's heartlands outside of London.

So far Mr Miliband's muddled "one nation" sloganeering is failing to win the crucial support needed to put him into Downing Street. The Tories may be taking a risk by going back to the future with a return to Thatcherism.

Their calculation is that in the battle for the crucial blue-collar vote, a little clear blue thinking and some conviction politics will prove decisive.

WHILE red and white flags of St George flutter over much of the country to celebrate the football World Cup, blue looks set to stay in the Union Jack for the foreseeable future.

Opinion polls are suggesting that a majority of Scots will vote against independence in the referendum in September. Morale has been improving in the Better Together campaign, led by former Labour chancellor Alistair Darling, following a few months of jitters earlier this year when Scottish Nationalist leader Alex Salmond appeared to be gaining the upper hand.

The drive to preserve the United Kingdom was boosted by David Cameron's coup in securing some words of support from US President Barack Obama during the G7 summit in Brussels earlier this month.

A £1million donation conjured up by Harry Potter author JK Rowling for the "no" to independence campaign has further helped to steady nerves.

But in the Commons some Tory MPs fear that the Conservative leadership has gone too far in making concessions to win over wavering Scots.

David Cameron has made clear that Westminster will devolve more powers to the Holyrood parliament if Scotland chooses to stay in the UK this autumn. And Ruth Davidson, the leader of the Scottish Tories, has called for Edinburgh to get full control over income tax north of the border in the wake of a "no" vote.

"There is a lot of unhappiness about this but it is a very sensitive issue and people are avoiding speaking out," said one senior Tory backbencher.

"The trouble is that every few years there is a little bit more devolution. It means the union is unravelling bit by bit."

There are concerns that unionists in Scotland who want a strong link with the rest of the UK maintained are not getting an option on the referendum ballot paper that will suit their vision of Scotland's future. They have effectively been disenfranchised.

During the debates over parliamentary reform in the 19th century, the Tory statesman Robert Peel warned that even a little tinkering with the constitution would "open a door which I saw no prospect of being able to close".

The growing worry among Tory MPs and other supporters of the union is that piecemeal devolution is widening the exit for an eventual Scottish departure in the long term even if Scots vote against independence when they get to the polls this autumn.

They fear that the blue dye in the Union Jack will not prove to be permanent.